Much is made of the Patients’ Bill of Rights displayed at hospitals and nursing homes, but I wonder if similar rights exist for nurses (or health care workers in general). Yesterday I experienced my second day at work during which I was genuinely afraid that I was going to get hurt, and this time I WAS hurt. I ache all over from being hit and clawed all day long and from having to wrestle with a patient far too big for me to have a reasonable chance of controlling safely (for either one of us).
I brought this up multiple times throughout the day, and no one paid any evident attention either to the fact that I was in physical danger and was in fact being roughhoused or to the fact that if the patient decided to take off and happened to fall there was very little I could do about it. After 8 hours a male aide came from another floor to take my place, but I’m not sure whether this was because my desperate pleas were heeded or because they needed me on the floor. Anyway. This combined with the previous experience I had with the crazy family member (who I thought was going to hit me but didn’t) has given me a definite dread and actual fear of going to work. In what other profession would I be expected to be repeatedly hit? I am often hit or kicked as a one-off deal, and I don’t mind much because the patient usually doesn’t mean to do it and there is no way it can really be predicted or prevented. But in this case EVERYONE knew this patient was going to be violent.
So what about my rights? I hear a lot about patient rights and patient safety, and those items are indeed near the top of my priority list at work. However, my own safety is right up there as well, and that philosophy does not appear to be shared by my employers. It started me thinking. DO nurses have the right to a safe workplace? I don’t think I have ever heard this proclaimed. Obviously they should, but I’m wondering how common this kind of situation is.
I’m pretty much thinking that no job is worth being hit while no one does anything, so the next time I’m assigned to sit with a patient known to be violent I am going to refuse the assignment unless security is also in the room. I have too much respect for myself to allow that to happen again, and if I am fired for this caution then I guess this institution just isn’t a good fit. Am I insane to be bothered by this? Other aides were appalled and several said, “I wouldn’t have sat in there,” but is that true? I’ve never OBSERVED anyone refusing to do things like that. And the night nurse yelled at me before I even went in the room because her aide had said it was an impossible situation (”It’s your JOB,” she said). That didn’t really start my day off very well.
It was a bad day for everyone. Several of us were about to just walk out because of all the impossible situations that kept occurring. If it weren’t for my previous experience, I would write it off as a bizarre exception, but apparently this hospital has a habit of discounting its employees’ need for protection from violence. I’m not in to that. I want to help people and be a good nurse, and I am willing to accept the reasonable risk that one accepts to work in a hospital; however, I did not sign up to be a punching bag.
I don’t have much experience, but it sounds like you need to find another place to work! On the floor I volunteer on we don’t see many violent patients, but those who might harm themselves or others are assigned “sitters” to watch over them 24/7. More than one person is generally in the room when performing tasks, too, so nurses and assistants aren’t dealing with the person alone.
Do healthcare workers have a right to sue employers if they’re injured on the job due to lack of security on the part of the employer, I wonder?
Did you not tell the patient that this was a clear violation of Rule Two?
With the NHS having a severe case of chronic under staffing there are never security around when you really need them. But unfortunately anyone that works in public service is at risk of getting the pish kicked out of them at some point. I don’t think anyone has managed to sue for damages off the NHS yet… Don’t think we can to be honest.
That is totally unacceptable. On my floor, if a patient attempted to get physical a Team 99, or psych emergency, would be called. And my coworkers (aides, nurses, etc) would be appropriately indignant on my behalf. Your job is to aide the nurses and assist the patients. Get a new job. Your fellow staff members should treat you a little better.
I deal with this at work too. The floor I’m mainly on doesn’t really see the violent people but if I have to go to dementia I swear I have to put on body armor. Granted they don’t know what they’re doing is wrong, however, there should be something that protects us.
In a 2 day stretch on dementia I got slapped across the face with a shitty hand, clawed on 3 occassions, spit on, called vulgar names, and dodged several other physical attempts. I have to report all behavior on paper and computer charting and if deemed necessary by social services they’ll be sent out of our facility and not allowed back. When I tell their nurse they don’t care, they just laugh and say “oh well”.
I think anyones first instinct is to hit back, but we can’t because that’s abuse, yet when we’re the victim it’s just called an outburst or behavior episode. Some people can take it all in stride as, “just another part of the job”, but I’m not one of those people.
I just saw your bit on Twitter about fiddling with your usernames, and even though it’s offtopic, I thought it might be good to point out that I did the same thing for similar reasons. It’s been pretty painless for me.
Ahhh, yes, patient violence. We take it as “part of the job” because no one can/will stand up for the rights of the nurse/nurse’s aide. It sucks to be constantly worried about your safety from your patients. We get enough confused and demented and psychotic patients on our floor that it has become second nature to deal with them. Do I like it? Hell, no, but like above, it’s part of the job. At least your ER isn’t working against you…ours sent up a suicidal/homicidal/OD patient who kept saying they were going to kill someone who had a large hunting knife in their bag. Yeah, thanks guys.
I don’t agree that it’s part of the job to be a punching bag. It’s part of the job to DEAL with these patients, but not in a sacrificial lamb kind of way. I was assigned to sit with this violent patient again, and he had just sprayed the floor, walls, and ceiling with blood by means of beating the crap out of one of the night staff. Were security in there? No. Plans for security or restraints? No. I therefore refused to be in the room alone with him, so another aide was made to sit with him. ONE aide. I attempted to sway her toward refusal as well, but she didn’t bite. This situation is obscene. Does our safety mean so little to this hospital? Does someone need to actually be killed or permanently maimed in order for them to take decisive action in favor of staff safety? Uh-huh. Continued, predictable violence is just not OK.
I was written up because I had 5 absences in a calender year. all of those incidents were periods of sickness. One weekend I had the pink eye and got sent home 4 hours into my 12 hour shift and was not allowed back without a doctor’s note. This was defined as excessive absence.
second, I suffer with severe migraine headaches and my doctor mandated 3 days off in the middle of my work week. I was also penalized for this in the write up. Which is not fair when the manager won’t approve trades among employees even when they know a whole month in advance that you can not cover your shift! Now with this write up, I can’t call in for 6 months! With a chronic condition, how can you expect me to control my sickness? I think it’s absurd that we nurses are penalized for illness! I’m afraid to aquire the FMLA for fear of harrassment since there is no job security within Advocate, a privately owned facility with no union!